Swartz Johnna R, Phan K Luan, Angstadt Mike, Klumpp Heide, Fitzgerald Kate D, Monk Christopher S
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Depress Anxiety. 2014 Oct;31(10):870-9. doi: 10.1002/da.22289. Epub 2014 Jul 3.
Pediatric and adult anxiety disorder patients exhibit attention bias to threat and difficulty disengaging attention away from threat. Cognitive frameworks suggest that these patterns are associated with hyperactivation of regions associated with detecting threat, such as the amygdala, and hypoactivation of regions associated with regulating attention, including the lateral prefrontal cortex and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). The aim of the present study was to examine the neural correlates of these processes in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.
Participants with an anxiety disorder 7 to 19 years old (n = 34) and typically developing controls (n = 35) underwent fMRI scanning. During scanning, they completed a task with conditions that manipulated whether participants were instructed to match emotional faces (direct emotion processing) or match shapes in the context of emotional face distractors (attentional control).
Results revealed a significant difference in rACC activation during shape versus face matching, with controls evidencing greater rACC activation relative to patients.
This study identifies abnormalities in rACC activation as a potential neural mediator associated with pediatric anxiety disorders, which can inform frameworks for understanding their development and treatment.
儿童和成人焦虑症患者表现出对威胁的注意偏向，且难以将注意力从威胁上转移开。认知框架表明，这些模式与与检测威胁相关区域（如杏仁核）的过度激活以及与调节注意力相关区域（包括外侧前额叶皮质和喙前扣带回皮质[rACC]）的激活不足有关。本研究的目的是检查焦虑症儿童和青少年中这些过程的神经相关性。
7至19岁的焦虑症患者（n = 34）和发育正常的对照组（n = 35）接受了功能磁共振成像扫描。在扫描过程中，他们完成了一项任务，该任务的条件操纵了参与者是被指示匹配情绪面孔（直接情绪处理）还是在情绪面孔干扰物的背景下匹配形状（注意力控制）。
结果显示，在形状与面孔匹配过程中，rACC激活存在显著差异，对照组相对于患者表现出更大的rACC激活。
本研究确定rACC激活异常是与儿童焦虑症相关的潜在神经调节因子，这可为理解其发展和治疗的框架提供信息。
